Montenegrin, e.g. / FRI 3-6-26 / Grain that once fed the Roman army / Satellite transmission path / Longtime soccer manager ___-Göran Eriksson / Shelters some look to when duty calls? / Hyperbolic amount of work / Emits a stream of hot air / Exiled character in "King Lear" / The good life, in Spanish vernacular / First impression of a new video game? / Feature of Alfalfa's hair in "The Little Rascals" / Fictional subjects of 13 movies between 2000 and 2020 / Device such as a qamutiik, an Inuk means of Arctic transportation

Constructor: Adrian Johnson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Montenegro (34A: Montenegrin, e.g. = BALKAN) —

Montenegro is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Its 25 municipalities have a total population of 633,158 people in an area of 13,883 km² (5,360 sq mi). It is bordered by Serbia to the northeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Kosovo to the east, Albania to the southeast, and Croatia to the west, and has a coastline along the Adriatic Sea to the southwest. The capital and largest city is Podgorica, while Cetinje is the Old Royal Capital and cultural centre. [...] he name Montenegro was first used to refer to the country in the late 15th century. After falling under Ottoman Empire rule, Montenegro gained semi-autonomy in 1696 under the rule of the House of Petrović-Njegoš, first as a theocracy and later as a secular principality. Montenegro's independence was recognised by the Great Powers at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. In 1910, the country became a kingdom. After World War I, the kingdom became part of Yugoslavia. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, the republics of Serbia and Montenegro together proclaimed a federation. In June 2006 Montenegro declared its independence following a referendum. (wikipedia)

• • •

[the only Montenegro I have any personal experience with]

Solid stacks, minimal gunk, pretty good. The most annoying thing about the puzzle to me, personally, is its physical shape, its particular black-square arrangement, which cuts this puzzle almost in two and really chokes off the whoosh. Here, I'll show you. This is me, almost exactly halfway through:

As you can see (I hope), there are multiple entryways into the empty half of the grid, obviously (four of them), but they are all teeny tiny, particularly at the top and bottom, and even if you manage to poke an answer through one of them (as I did with OPENS), you don't really get any good traction because you end up in the middle of a bed of long answers. The way I keep up flow and maintain traction is by access to somewhat shorter fill (easier to get at first glance than longer fill, on average), so having passages narrow and having very little to grab hold of via crosses meant an annoying kind of halt and reboot. Like there were two puzzles. I basically had to start over. Heavy segmentation is not my favorite thing on any puzzle, but esp. not on a Friday puzzle, when I crave whoosh (not necessarily speed, but that feeling of one thing flowing into the next into the next etc.). Getting into that second half of the grid was not, ultimately, that difficult. But still, did not like having my flow interrupted so drastically. I did, however, like the NW and SE corners—no clunkers in those longer answers—and the puzzle ended up putting up a halfway decent fight, which I appreciated.

The hardest part of the puzzle for me was ... well, you can see, if you look at my screenshot of the finished grid (above) that the last thing I wrote into the puzzle was BALKAN (34A: Montenegrin, e.g.). Everything in and around BALKAN I have circled in green ink on my printout and shaded in, so there's this giant greenish blob from the -DED in WOODED up through ROTH, whose name (LOL) I once again forgot. I know a Tim ROTH and I know ROTH IRAs and if I'm lisping I know Betsy ROTH but that's it. I think my brain is incapable of retaining any more ROTHs. [update: as several readers have reminded me, I do know other ROTHs: David Lee and Philip, to name two]. I have never and will never read those "Divergent" novels and I have never and apparently will never remember Veronica ROTH's name. It's a curse. I'll just have to live with it. As far as everything else inside the green blog—I came at it from below so first had trouble with TAX DODGES. I had the -ODGES part and wanted to be dealing with some kind of LODGES (31D: Shelters some look to when duty calls?). "Shelters" are structures and LODGES are structures and DODGES really aren't, so I was baffled. I wanted WOODSY for 39A: Sylvan, which forced DODGES but then also was wrong (it's WOODED), so my confidence in anything through there grew faint. That clue on X-MEN did nothing for me (37A: Fictional subjects of 13 movies between 2000 and 2020). 13 movies!?!? Yeesh. Why? I was fully prepared to write in ENTS at one point (how many LOTR/Hobbit movies have there been?). I was thinking of TV / the movies / drama as the context for 28D: Made a scene, say (FILMED). I just wasn't thinking of FILMED (for a while). And FARRO, forget it, no way I'm getting that grain without help from crosses (28A: Grain that once fed the Roman army). I was never fully stuck in this area—it just got real gummy. Nowhere else did toughish clues come in a clump like this.

Lots of little errors today. WOODSY was one. The most consequential error was probably up to where I wrote in "Just a FAD" (5D: Just a ___ = TAD). Actually, I think I wanted DAB before that, but LET'S DO LUNCH eliminated that, and I was left with -AD. Just a FAD. Makes sense to me. But then I had STAR F- at 1A: First impression of a new video game? and the only 11-letter word or phrase I know that starts STAR F- is not something you'll ever see in the NYTXW, so ... that was a no-go. Eventually noticed that TAD would give me START at the beginning of 1A, and that's how I got START BUTTON (a good answer and a great clue, it turns out). I really like the strange finger-based "?"-clue symmetry of 1A: First impression of a new video game? (START BUTTON) and 57A: Digital deals for young people (PINKY SWEARS). Unless you're hitting the START BUTTON with your elbow or forehead or something. Then I supposed that particular symmetry would be lost on you. Any other outright errors? Nope. I had no idea who the SVEN guy was (48D: Longtime soccer manager ___-Göran Eriksson), but otherwise, outside of the green blob, this was a fairly easy puzzle.

Bullets:

• 54A: Home security inits. since 1874 (ADT) — The "since 1874" bit sounds suspiciously ad-like. Next it'll be [Home security inits. you can trust]. ADT is about the worst thing this grid has to offer in terms of fill quality. Unless you're a French-hater, in which case you're probably more mad at ICI (52D: Pas ___ (somewhere else: Fr.)). "Pas ICI" means literally "not here."
• 6D: Emits a stream of hot air (BLOVIATES) — I love this answer. "It figures!" Alright, alright, settle down.
• 7D: Satellite transmission path (UPLINK) — "path" had me thinking of orbits. Had the "P" and briefly considered APOGEE ... but that's a point in an orbit. 

APOGEE: the point in the orbit of an object (such as a satellite) orbiting the earth that is at the greatest distance from the center of the earth (merriam-webster.com)

• 8D: Hit the ground loudly (THUDDED) — disguised past tense ("Hit"). Tricky.
• 9D: Hyperbolic amount of work (TONS) — I wanted this to be more work-specific. TONS is a hyperbolic amount of anything. A hyperbolic amount of spaghetti, for instance.
• 14D: Pleasurable place to do business? (SEX SHOP) — I follow a sex shop on Instagram. Bet you didn't expect to see that sentence today. Smitten Kitten is very close to where my best friends live in Minneapolis and they have been an important voice in the resistance to I.C.E., as well as an important source of support for their neighbors who are being hunted and living in fear. Their social media posts are funny and fearless. I don't think I've ever actually been in Smitten Kitten, but next time I'm in town, I'm going, if only to say "love your work." I'm pretty sure following Smitten Kitten on Insta helped me see SEX SHOP today quicker than I would have otherwise.

• 43D: ___ Buena (island in San Francisco Bay) (YERBA) — didn't know this and yet somehow also it's the first thing I thought of. If you'd asked me what I thought "YERBA Buena" was before today, I'd've said something like "uh... a town near San Diego?" The only island I know in the Bay is Alcatraz.
• 44D: Exiled character in "King Lear" (EDGAR) — deep cut. Pretty tough, as Shak. clues go. Without crosses, I'm not sure I'd've remembered it off the top of my head.
• 32D: The good life, in Spanish vernacular (PURA VIDA) —this phrase is specifically Costa Rican. I saw it all the time when I was down there on vacation (a long time ago, now).

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Boswords Spring Themeless League (online) (starts Mon., Mar. 2, 2026)
• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Stamford, CT, Apr. 10-12, 2026) (registration closed!)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Law enforcer in Leicester / THU 3-5-26 / CVS Health subsidiary / Replay technique, informally / Winning hit at Wimbledon / Gomez's cousin on 1960s TV / Leif, to Eric the Red / One-named artist who sang the U.S. national anthem at the Paris Olympics closing ceremony / Performs at a Thunderbirds show

Constructor: Hanh Huynh

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (this will vary widely depending on when you pick up the gimmick)

[17A: User of the Force]

THEME: DARK / HORSES (66A: With 68-Across, long-shot candidates ... or a hint to six squares in this puzzle) — six black ("dark") squares actually contain letters (H, O, R, S, E, S, respectively), which you must supply in order to make sense of twelve answers that run through them:

Theme answers:

• ORCHESTRATE / OVERTHROW (5D: Choreograph / 19A: Remove from power)
• DISHONOR / RAMONES (35A: Bring shame upon / 22D: "Blitzkrieg Bop" band)
• EVERPRESENT / ORCHESTRATE (38A: Always there / 5D: Choreograph)
• EVERPRESENT / PASSING SHOT (38A: Always there / 26D: Winning hit at Wimbledon)
• ALIENATE / LIVES ON (42A: Estrange / 28D: Endures)
• CONSTABLE / PASSING SHOT (61A: Law enforcer in Leicester / 26D: Winning hit at Wimbledon)

Word of the Day: NATE Archibald (44A: N.B.A. great ___ Archibald) —

Nathaniel "Tiny" Archibald (born September 2, 1948) is an American former professional basketball player. He spent 14 years playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most notably with the Cincinnati Royals/Kansas City–Omaha Kings and Boston Celtics. In 1991, he was enshrined into both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.

Archibald was a willing passer and an adequate shooter from midrange. However, it was his quickness, speed and shiftiness that made him difficult to guard in the open court, as he would regularly drive past defenders on his way to the basket. This versatility helped Archibald lead the NBA in scoring and assists in the same season (1972–73), making him the first of only two players in league history to achieve such a feat.

• • •

[Dark Horse Comics presents... TALES OF THE [17-Down]]

This is architecturally spectacular, but only on review. The solve itself, while not very difficult, was chaotic, and yet underneath all that chaos the puzzle itself, at the basic clue/answer level, was actually kind of lifeless. So I was very impressed, ultimately, by the structure of it all, and somewhat bored by the act of moving in and around that structure. If you look at the clues, there's nothing very interesting happening at all. There's nothing you would consider entertaining or eye-grabbing answers, no particularly tricky or clever clues. Everything here is in the service of the theme, which (revealer aside), is an entirely structural theme. The clues, the meanings of words, none of these have any relation to the theme. Letters are building blocks. There's no engagement with solvers at the level of word meaning, really. Words are broken up, but breaking them up is purely an act of the physical manipulation of letters. I don't have to figure anything out at the level of word meaning or wordplay. At the ends of puzzles like these I always feel like I'm supposed to clap (and I am clapping) but more because the constructor made a really intricate contraption than because I particularly enjoyed myself while solving it. So it's a very well made puzzle ... just not one that thrilled me as a solver. 

It's possible that the thrill was gone quickly for me today because I picked up the basics of the theme very, very early, at ORCHESTRATE, when I had an undeniable ORC that made no sense for the clue (). I had already been thinking "Orchestrate" was a synonym for [Choreograph], so I just experimented: if I were a "-HESTRA," where would I go??? Tried the most obvious place first: directly through the black square at the end of ORC. And that turned out to be right. Let out a little "ooh" when I realized that ORCHESTRATE would have to go through two different black squares. And that was that. Well not that that. I had no idea what the black "H" and "R" were doing, but ... hidden-letter gimmick, unlocked. I went through the following black square and it was just a regular black square, with regular answers on the other side. Very quickly, I ended up all the way at the bottom of the grid:

I realize now that part of what made the solve feel chaotic was that I had no way to mark those squares as I was solving. On paper, you could write on those squares or indicate their specialness in some way, but online, you just have to keep imagining the letter there, and since there are so many black squares in a puzzle, those special squares were really hard to keep straight. Lots of bumbling around not because I didn't understand, but because I kept losing track of squares I'd already sussed out. So ... fussy, not hard. BAH. Anyway, the revealer phrase came shortly after ORCHESTRATE, and while that let me know what letters would be in play, I still had to go find them. A kind of Easter egg hunt. There was some fun in that, some challenge. But actually solving the clues themselves wasn't too hard (or too interesting). But you do have to admire the structural elegance of this thing. "H-O-R-S-E-S" all appear in order, when reading top to bottom, and all the regularly-filled elements of the puzzle are plausible crossword answers even when they are unclued (i.e. ORC is a real thing and ALI is a real thing and CON is a real thing, etc.). That is, no gibberish. Having three different answers that traverse two "dark" letters also struck me as impressive. It's quite a machine, this puzzle. Wish I'd enjoyed driving it more. The only real challenge this one presented for me involved holding those hidden-letter black squares in my mind. Everything else felt Tuesday. Tepid Tuesday.

Bullets:

• 1A: Replay technique, informally (SLO-MO) — a gimme. SLO-MO to OPER, MEETS, and ... ORC? Oh, ORCHESTRA. While I didn't fly through the puzzle (because of all the black-square business), I cannot find another place in this puzzle where I struggled in any way with the actual clues. Oh, except ...
• 36D: One-named artist who sang the U.S. national anthem at the Paris Olympics closing ceremony (H.E.R.) — I keep forgetting H.E.R. exists. I know H.E.R. won a Grammy, because the puzzle tells me so every once in a while, but for whatever reason H.E.R.'s name keeps falling out of my bag of one-named artists. In three letters, I think SIA, SZA ... ??? You gotta go to four and five letters to get to the real one-named titans: CHER, ENYA, ADELE. Part of the issue is that I know actual songs by all the other one-named artists. I can't hum a thing by H.E.R.. Let's see if I can begin to change that today:

[255M views on YouTube]

• 38A: Always there (EVERPRESENT) — the first three letters here were probably the toughest part for me today, or the part I stumbled over the most. I couldn't figure out the Down cross (LIVES ON) and because I was focused on that trick square, I did not expect another trick square to be so close by, which means I kept assuming the answer to 38A: Always there was just three letters long. E'ER? E'ER seemed very close to [Always there]. But no. .... ERE? No. Colder. 
• 46D: Big Dutch bank (ING) — bank names made solely out of random letters. Not my idea of a good time. I think I wrote GNC here at first, but that's a vitamin and supplement store chain.
• 52D: Typewriter feature (TAB SET) — more unappealing fill. Do the keys actually say "TAB SET"? I have a typewriter here and it's just got a right-facing arrow on its "tab" key. This formal name for a bygone thing wasn't hard, but it wasn't pleasant either.
• 2D: San Diego suburb (LA MESA) — if you're in the San Diego suburbs, I'd say you're in the weeds, fill-wise. If you're in the city, great, everyone knows cities. If you're in the suburbs, yikes. Only locals know suburbs. You should probably avoid suburbs. Remember: NATICK* is a suburb. 

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*NATICK is the term for an unfair / uninferable crossing, esp. of proper nouns

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️

• Grid Prix (Detroit, MI, Thu., Mar. 19, 2026) (new!)
• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Stamford, CT, Apr. 10-12, 2026) (registration closed!)

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...